CubsWin

If you read the articles, he isn't seriously considering it, not for the price they are asking now.

Yet another reason to cool yer jets... Okay?

I'm voting again. This time its my wife's e-mail address. Vote early, vote often. Chicagoans should be used to that...

Folks, chill. The article only said that Colorado wants Cedeno in return. That is great news. It means that other GMs think Ronny is for real, too. The article said nothing to the effect that Hendry was even considering giving him up. Wasn't there a thread just a couple of days ago that rumored Hendry nixed a deal for Wilson because Cedeno was the guy they wanted in return? For my part, I don't want Wilson. He isn't what the Cubs need. He's more HRs and Ks. The Cubs need OBP. They've got plenty of power. Now they need to get people on base so that these guys can drive 'em in.

I'm voting right now. Ah, the magical power of windows....

EPatt breaks into the hot sheet at #20 (where is Casey Kasem when you need him). Gallagher and Moore, both deserving, made the team photo. BTW, no Cardinals made the hot sheet again this week. Hunh, go figure...

And he got pulled after 2 at bats. Sheesh..... He got pulled thanks to Glendon Rusch not being able to get the third out in the inning. Thanks to Glendon, he was pulled with his spot in the order up first. Or maybe you wanted to bring in Borowski for just one hitter? Thanks, dalgreen. Did you watch the game tonight, frostwyrm? If you did, then you should understand why Dubois was pulled when he was. If you did watch the game and you still made this post, then you are being needlessly argumentative. Dubois started tonight and against a right-hander at that. He is basically starting every other game now. He has not been benched. If the facts don't match your argument, then maybe it time to reevaluate the point you were trying to make. Not everyone can alter the intelligence to support their argument and get away with it. :wink:

What is your evidence that Dubois got benched on June 1st? Baker continued to start Dubois every other game until the Hollandsworth started the last two. Dubois started June 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th. Then the Cubs had an off-day on the 9th. Todd took his turn on the 10th and did well, so Dusty gave him a shot the next day and he went 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs. Dusty is going with the hot hand and it is paying dividends. But after only sitting two days in a row, you have concluded that Dubois is benched and will never see the light of day again unless Holla completely folds and that that equals more proof that Dusty is a terrible manager. Wow. My head is spinning from the sheer amount of assumptions who have just made. Slow down. It has only been two games. Who is saying he was expected to get hot. He was given 17 starts in 19 games. Maybe it was just to give him a chance and see how he responded. Maybe the 19 games were not a predetermined amount. Maybe Clines and Hollandsworth watched a lot of tape of Holla taking his hacks and found a weakness. Holla sat out until he fixed the problem in side sessions and batting practice. Dubois wasn't setting the world on fire so Dusty gave Todd a second chance and threw every other start his way for a while. Todd started making good contact, so Dusty gave him a second start in a row. How is this terrible managing? Remember, Dusty is in the business of winning games not developing players while the team is in the playoff hunt. You are totally skewing stats and trying to make them fit your point. Yes, he did have a .318 OPS in May. He also had 36 ABs in May, 22 of which came before he was benched. Again, it is highly unlikely that the decision to give Holla a 2nd chance was based on his performance in the 14 ABs he got during the time Dubois was the sole starter. It is far more likely that the decision was based on his performance during batting practice and coaching sessions. If Dubois hit a bad slump, took a couple of weeks to work out the kinks with a coach and then starting hitting the ball much better in practice, I highly doubt that Baker wouldn't give him the same shot he gave Hollandsworth. Why? Because Dusty wants to win ballgames, period. Oh, by the way, Dubois is starting in LF tonight...

I have no problem with you having that opinion, but where is your evidence for it? I think there is plenty of chance that Dubois could be named a starter in the Cubs OF next season. It comes down to how well he performs. And that is as it should be, isn't it? If you want to win and win now like the Cubs and their fans seem to, then you want to have the players out on the field that are going to give the team its best chance of winning that day. That may not always be the guy with the highest OPS. There are other factors involved. Baker didn't have any problem starting Dubois 17 out of 19 games from May 10th (the day Hollandsworth got demoted) to May 31st, and in that time, Dubois faced mostly right-handed pitching. During that stretch of extended play, Dubois batted .242, walking 3 times and striking out 20 times with 2 HRs and 6 doubles in 62 ABs. Not bad for a rookie, but also nothing that is going to keep Hollandsworth permanently on the bench either. So, when June rolled around, Baker decided to give Holla some more ABs, maybe after hearing reports that Todd had found something while working with Gene Clines, maybe not. He had basically gone 50/50 with the starts between the two of them until one of them got hot. I certainly don't think that Hollandsworth will stay this hot, so what makes you think that Dubois won't get another chance to prove himself worthy of a starting job? It can't be that Baker has a bias against rookies because the evidence doesn't support that either, plus, come '06 Dubois will be a veteran, won't he? :wink:

Fred, Those splits seem to say he performed better while coming off the bench. It makes perfect sense. He mostly played against lefties in the first month or so, so I would expect his numbers to be better. But that doesn't mean he should not be getting most of the starts in LF. Clearly, given the way Hollandsworth performed, Dubois deserves the increase in playing time, and the Cubs are better off with him starting in LF over Hollandsworth.

Actually, she was wearing a Padres hat. Go figure...

While at the Cubs/Padres game on Sunday, I grabbed a bunch of ballots and started punching. I voted for Derrek every time, of course. I struck up a conversation with the woman seated next to me, and, as it turned out, she was a Cardinals fan. When she saw me filling out a bunch of ballots, she went and got some herself. I asked if she was going to vote for Pujols even though Derrek was clearing having the better season, and she balked at the suggestion that Lee was indeed having the better season. As I was listing off all of the offensive catagories in which Lee is outperforming Pujols, Derrek snagged a sharp grounder and turned the always difficult 3-6-3 double play to end the inning. As Lee was jogging off the field, I finished by pointing out that he is a better defender than Pujols and won the gold glove in '03. She backed off her statement that she would vote for Pujols saying, "I'm not sure I want him to go, now. You know, he might get injured." I bet she still votes for him anyway, though. While she was out getting popcorn, an usher came by and offered me more ballots. I took a look at the stack that she had and said, "Give me what she's got." All in all, I think I filled out close to 50. I dropped them in the ballot box personally. Go Derrek!

Count me on the bandwagon. I went to Mesa this year specifically to watch the Creature make the team. I've gotten his autograph on his player page in the Cubs Media Guide two years in a row now. And just today, I had a premonition about him hitting the 3-run blast. Right when he stepped into the batter's box I had the strongest feeling the he was going to hit a HR. I had been feeling negative about the Cubs all game until he stepped in the box for that at bat. All of a sudden, my mood changed and the very distinct thought that he would put the Cubs up by 2 runs entered my head. I told my wife just to document the prediction and sure enough...

Yep, it looks like I was wrong as well about Sisco being returned. It looks like Sisco will stick with the Royals, but his early performances aren't the reason why. The real reason why he is very likely to not be returned is the absolutely terrible pitching staff that the Royals have put together. I still think it is quite possible that Andy will struggle and finish the year with some very poor numbers. Remember, early on, when no one has much scouting video on you, the pitcher has the advantage. The league might be beginning to adjust to him now. But even if he does start to tank it, the rest of the Royals staff is so bad that there would be little reason for KC to give up on him. I felt much the same as vance did when Sisco was selected and still do. It was too early to put Sisco on the 40-man and start his 3-year option clock. He wasn't throwing 96mph last year. He was overweight. He had struggled at Daytona and was exhibiting a low level of maturity. That's not the type of performance that you want to reward by giving him a spot on the 40-man roster. And these things happen. Some teams are really bad at the major league level and can afford to take a chance on a guy who was left exposed to the draft. The Cubs system is very deep and the big league club has a chance to win now. Rule 5 was written for this exact situation. But lets not let the fact that Sisco has gotten off to a good start have us jump to the conclusion that the Cubs should have seen his improvement coming or that he will continue to pitch at this level. He showed no signs of being willing to lose the weight at the end of last season. But when you are given an opportunity to make a big league ballclub, albeit a really bad one, you can suddenly become very motivated. The weight loss resulted in regained velocity. The chance to pitch in the bigs gave him a reason to focus and be more responsible. Had he not been selected, would any of this have happened? Most of how a player performs is up to the kind of work he is willing to put in. You can't make a player want to work if he is being stubborn and immature.

As much as I soaked up every word that Oneri said in that chat, I understand that he can't say what he really thinks of his players. As he said that is "secret". Naturally, he is going to talk his players up. It serves two purposes. It keeps the fan base excited and a little more positive and, in case any GMs are listening/reading, it keeps them guessing as to who the marginal prospects are in the Cubs mind. The other GMs have to do their own scouting, and if they come to the Cubs and want someone the Cubs think is low on their list, then Hendry can get as much for him as possible. The Dodgers were notorious for doing this back in the Lasorda days. They would be so high on this guy or that and then trade him for major league talent. Then they would produce the Rookie of the Year anyway and the guy they traded would fade into oblivion. So I understand why Mr. Fleita does what he does and applaud him for pumping up our players, but as a fan, I'm not sure how much to really believe.

I agree, bocf. The Cubs farm system has had a lot of impact on the major league roster and in a lot of different ways. Just to be clear, The Dude did say three position players in three years so all the pitchers you listed above didn't really speak to his post. But I think breaking in one position player each year is a good ratio. Hill was given a great chance in the spring of '03, but tanked. I still think he will be a good player, but I'm glad the Cubs have Walker starting instead of him. And the fact that he was the key piece in landing Aramis just thrills me to no end. Choi was given a solid chance by Baker and the Cubs until his concussion basically ended his season. The Cubs have stuck with Patterson and we are still waiting for the payoff, but I'm confident that it is coming if you look at CPat's improvement over the last three years with drawing walks and stealing bases. This year its Dubois. I'm less confident that he will get a good chance to play unless he starts out hot. If he can get 250-300 ABs I'll be satisfied. That counts as "breaking him in". The Cubs need to know whether he can be counted on to take over LF in '06. So he needs to be given ABs and he needs to produce at a decent clip. The position players are coming. If the Cubs can get Brownlie's velocity into the low 90s and keep Guzman healthy, the pitchers will be coming as well. The system is strong. And if you compare it to when Hendry took over, it is completely turned around.

As the Guiness guys say... "Brilliant!" That chat transcript was like a tall glass of ice-cold water in the baseball information desert that is the off-season. Thank you Mark and Tim...

I thought the news out of the convention was that Corey was progressing on schedule to be ready for opening day. What this?

Thank you, Mark and Hoops! Its almost like being there, even all the way from L.A. :D

I know, I'm sitting here by my computer updating this thread every couple of minutes to see if anyone has posted what Saturday at the convention was like. I've never gone to the Cubs convention. But I'm lucky enough to go to spring training almost every year. Thanks for the updates, Mark and everyone who is posting their experiences at the convention. It is great to live vicariously through you.